


I Am Rico

by Flannigan



Category: Penguins of Madagascar
Genre: Character Study, Dark, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-31
Updated: 2012-08-31
Packaged: 2017-11-13 06:11:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/500356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flannigan/pseuds/Flannigan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every psychotic penguin has got to have a purpose. This is his purpose, his past, and what he hopes for the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Am Rico

My name is Rico. Your average deranged, explosives obsessive, big guy with a scar across my face.  
The silent type. Not that I don't _want_ to talk.

I'm the silent type 'cause I can't talk, my chords got damaged years ago, and staying silent and using gestures is preferable to unspeakable noises most of the time.

Right now I'm living with my teammates in Central Park zoo, with a lot of other animals who do not disturb me. It's a place to live, I guess.

Too boring.

I don't think it were here Commander Fernando pictured me being; he had big plans for me. But I'm not complaining. I get to blow stuff up once in a while. I want to do it more often but I'm forbidden to explode stuff outside of missions. So I use more power than needed when I get the chance.

My team is alright.  
They don't trouble me, and they're not too hard on me for my "excessive", as they call it, use of violence.

If you need to eliminate something, do it so hard it can't ever return for the rest of eternity, turn it into dust. And while you're at it, teach it a lesson with a chainsaw. That's what I stand for.

The private of the team (We only call him Private. Statistics show a private is often the first to die so in order to not grow attached too soon we're not supposed to know their real name.) is the kind that I used to bully as a hatching. The naïve and good kind, who only wanted what was best for everyone else, even if it was the most stupid choice.

But hey, we're on the same team here.  
And he's very skilled in flipper-to-flipper fighting. If I wanted to fight him I need to avoid facing him, use a lot of detonators. Mines, maybe?

Next there is Kowalski, the second in command. He's the kind I used to harass to do my homework for me as a young bird.

Still, we're on the same team here.  
And Skipper would be unhappy with me if I did _anything_ to anyone. Kowalski is the strategist, the one Skipper relies on when he's put us in a situation he can't solve himself.  
That's all he does, but sometimes he invents something that goes out of his control and we have to kill it. Often with explosives, so he's OK as long as he continues with his building. He thinks I'm friendly when I encourage him to invent something, but I'm just in it for the disaster.

The commander; we call him Skipper, not by his first or last name (He's never told us his name. Must be a paranoia thing.) and he's much like Commander Fernando. Determined, decisive, hard on training exercises, fearless and paranoid. Suspects everything; I don't think he completely trusts us- And those who he don't trust are in for a nasty surprise (I should know, I've been the surprise to others.) so I stay in his trust by following all his orders, without fuss. Just like Commander Fernando taught me.

One thing separates him from the great penguins I know: he's considerate to his friends.

We got taught at different academies, and I learned that to stay unbeatable you need to be free of faults, there can't be any way anyone can get to you.

If it had been anyone else that had kidnapped Julien we would still have gone to rescue him according to Skipper. The only reason I saw to track him down was because it was Dr. Blowhole. Penguin enemy number 1 the top ten list. (Commander Fernando got rid of number 7 and 3.)

If Dr. Blowhole had demanded Skipper would do something for him; he would do it because he'd be concerned about Julien. That's the biggest difference between him and Commander Fernando. He never got cornered in that way.

Skipper's academy taught him something different, that to be unbeatable he needed to trust his team (Not that he have a reason to believe we'll disobey orders, I'm talking about the other kind of trust.) on the friendly level. And the team would have to trust him. He had to become friends with us, so we'd want to do a good job.  
There is strength in numbers and that the unit would be stronger the tighter they were.

I showed him the intel about the course. He had never heard of the Free of Faults class. So I swallowed it and refused to tell him about it.

If Skipper wanted to be friends, I shouldn't alienate myself.

Commander Fernando let everyone know on a daily basis that we were nothing more than a team, four penguins who were matched after ability and specialization, and that he had a job to do.

"If you want to be buddies that's your call, but refuse to leave someone behind and you'll get left behind too. Compromise anything, and you're out with your tiny, worthless head first!"

It only happened once with two brothers, Antonio and Paulo, I think they died in that desert.

Commander Fernando, nicknamed "Iron Flipper" by his enemies and "Great Iron Flipper" by our side, was my hero, or idol. He was also my mentor. He taught me his whole propaganda, and I listened. If we met in a situation were I had to sacrifice either one of us so the other could live; I would let him die. Just as he taught me, don't let emotions get in the way of the fact that you have to get out alive.

The reason I left my old team is because Commander Fernando sent me away, he said I was of no use to him. I got angry when I heard that and went on a rampage.

Everything I had done for him! How hard I've worked! And I wasn't going to stop fighting!

I destroyed the lair, injured my team, and injured myself once or twice. Commander Fernando finally had enough and knocked me out. (Not in a sorrowful way like when someone's forced to take out a friend, like I see on TV all the time, but he used a steel bat.) I realized later that it was his way of saying I had outgrown the town, that I would be of better use somewhere else.

Because he saw my potential.

I was a walking safety deposit box, infiltrating jamming devices was something I did once or twice, but mostly I made things disappear, (By swallowing them or exploding them.) and holding the gear needed for missions. It was once suggested I swallowed a bomb and would detonate it inside the enemy base.

My ability was something that was appreciated. Commander Fernando had spoken of the International Penguin Base as my future goal.

I agreed, he knew what was best.

So surely Skipper is someone who can take me to that goal. I only have to show my worth. But Skipper does not see my potential like Commander Fernando did. I know it's because he didn't go the Free of Faults class, he sees me as a friend. He'd never order me to swallow a bucket of nitroglycerin sealed with plastic, or infiltrate an enemy base alone with only the grenades in my stomach and my strength as weapons.

The art of swallowing and regurgitating is something I can't fail at (If someone hasn't made me eat "Anti-gag Vomiting Syrup".), but one time it got bad. That's when I damaged my chords; I was supposed to hide a roll of barbed wire when it unrolled itself inside of me. I noticed that when I had to drag it out.

Regurgitating is what I do, what I am. I can't communicate, I have a lovey mush sensitivity, I've grown attached to the team, and I'm dating a doll. I can explain the dolly but the "growing attached" part isn't something I can explain. It just happened.

They started growing on me.

Like fungus.

With all my faults I don't understand why Commander Fernando took me under his flipper, other than my skill and thirst for destruction.

I need to get rid of them, my faults, one day. I need to get out of here, go to the International Penguin Base.

I need to follow every order I get and hope that someday I'll be promoted. Someday I'll leave the friendly fungus behind.

And when that day comes, I'll be as deadly, no, deadlier than Commander "Great Iron Flipper" Fernando.

And then I'll kill him, revenge for my father "Flaming" Enrico.

I am regurgitation.

I am lethal explosions.

I am deadly.

I am strength.

I am revenge.

I am Rico. Your average deranged, explosives obsessive, big guy with a scar across my face.


End file.
